Reggie's Red Hot Feetwarmers proudly announce the release of their newest CD, Saratoga Souvenir. This is the band's long-awaited fifth recording, following Volume 1 (1992), Saratoga Shout (1994), Happy Feet (1996) and instant Mardi Gras (1999). Saratoga Souvenir features the spectacular playing of New York City-based clarinet virtuoso Dan Levinson.
Reggie's Red Hot Feetwarmers have been together since the early 1980's when they began as an offshoot project of Doc Scanlon's Rhythm Boys. The traditional New Orleans/Hot Jazz band is beginning their 20th year at the famed Saratoga, New York Racetrack as "house band" five days a week. During an active career that began in the 1980's, Dan Levinson has worked with such jazz luminaries as Dick Hyman, Mel Torme and Wynton Marsalis. A member of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks since 1993, Dan has been featured with them on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio program and at Carnegie Hall. He has also recorded and performed numerous projects under his own leadership. (http://www.danlevinson.com/)
Saratoga Souvenir captures a very special Saratoga tradition. The Feetwarmers are a colorful, moveable musical feast that strolls to all corners of the country's oldest racetrack to entertain crowds young and old. Harkening back to the sounds of the 20's and 30's, the Feetwarmers pump out an infectious, all-acoustic, unplugged brand of jumping jazz, with the only amplification being the megaphone that "Reggie" uses for singing. The band includes banjo, acoustic slap bass, trumpet, trombone and clarinet. Their repertoire is a romp through some of the best traditional and hot jazz tunes of the 1920's and 30's. Whether at the Track, at concerts, clubs or private parties, the Feetwarmers always set toes tappin' and faces smilin'.
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In the midst of the rollicking circus known as the Saratoga Racetrack in August rises a jaunty swirl of music, trumpet and banjo and the happy shriek of a clarinet the first sounds you identify. And then you find them: Reggie’s Red Hot Feetwarmers, a throwback quintet in the shade of one of the big old trees, giving new voice to old standards.
They’ve been a summer racetrack fixture for more than 20 years, as well as a hugely popular ensemble in and outside the Capital Region. For this summer’s performances—and this latest CD release—they’ve added clarinetist Dan Levinson, an internationally renowned player because of his ability to excel in any jazz styling he chooses.
You’ll even hear him as a vocalist on “Kids,” the Bye-Bye Birdie tune that is anachronistically (but somehow appropriately) included on the CD—but there’s also a scintillating performance of “Istanbul, Not Constantinople” (popularized by They Might Be Giants) and a stylish original by the group’s banjo player, Peter Davis, titled “Saratoga.”
The bulk of the disc comprises songs written between 1917 and 1938, chestnuts like “Tiger Rag,” “China Boy,” James P. Johnson’s “Old-Fashioned Love” and even Clyde McCoy’s cloying “Sugar Blues,” which gets a more dignified treatment from this group.
The bass is usually the bulwark, and here it’s Reggie himself, Reggie Scanlon, who knows how to slap that thing in trad jazz style and also supplies vocals for several numbers. Trombonist Tom Shields and trumpeter Mike Canonico have absorbed the legacies of Teagarden, Beiderbecke and company.
Although the arrangements sometimes seem formulaic, it’s a formula that evolved early in the era of these songs, and it’s really just a reliable framework from which to hang the fascinating solos and byplay of the players. With the inspired clarinet work of Levinson soaring and weaving through the songs, it feels like a happy trip back in time, but one that’s fresh and eager and—well, just plain happy throughout. This CD is not only a great souvenir of the racetrack, it’s also a fantastic souvenir of the earlier roots of jazz.
—B.A. Nilsson, Metroland Magazine, Albany, NY
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